International Education Research Articles

International education in transition: perceptions of expatriate leadership at a Chinese school delivering an Australian curriculum

ABSTRACT The burgeoning and transitioning field of private ‘non-traditional’ English-medium international schooling increasingly involves local schools delivering a Western-oriented curriculum to local children. This is especially evident in mainland China, which since 2019 has housed the most international schools. We present here a qualitative investigation of a Chinese senior school delivering an Australian curriculum. Informed by semi-structured interviews from the Chinese senior school’s Australian expatriate leadership, we utilise the concept of ‘Sinicisation’ to explore how the Chinese state highly regulates the transnational movement of the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) for educational mobility between the school and foreign, primarily Australian higher education. Drawing on the voices of the expatriate leadership, this paper reveals how the localisation of international education has created a unique transnational social space of the Sino-Australian senior school to meet Chinese cultural and parental expectations.

Interventions to enhance mental health and wellbeing among international college students: A systematic review and meta-analysis protocol.

International students contribute significantly to both the economy and the intellectual and cultural landscape of host countries. Their interactions with domestic students foster personal, socioeconomic, and political development, promopting a broader understanding of diverse cultures and values. This highlights how crucial international education is for staying competitive globally. However, international students often face challenges such as poor mental health, linguistic and cultural barriers, acculturative stress, and limited health literacy. Therefore, supporting their academic success and well-being on college campuses is essential. This protocol aims to describe strategies used to evaluate the effect of interventions on international students' mental health and wellbeing and propose directions for future research based on the evidence. We will conduct an extensive search in several databases including CINAHL, PubMed, Web of Science, PsyInFO, ERIC, and Google Scholar with no date limits. Two reviewers will independently screen the literature and extract data. We will then conduct meta-analyses of the extracted data. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first systematic review with meta-analysis focusing on interventions to enhance mental health and wellbeing among international college students. This study will provide most updated empirical evidence on the effects of interventions aimed to improve international students' mental health and wellbeing. The findings from this study will summarize the importance of a range of interventions being available to international students who experience psychological distress and the effectiveness of each intervention. This study will also highlight the gap for researchers to focus on for future studies. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42024528767.

What it Takes to be a Good International Chinese Teacher

After the recovery of international Chinese education in 2023, the demand for international Chinese teachers overseas has returned, which also means that the demand for truly excellent international Chinese teachers has also begun to rise. As a student who is about to become an international Chinese teacher, how to become an excellent international Chinese teacher and complete the teaching mission of an international Chinese teacher is the main issue worthy of deep consideration. Thinking about this issue can be carried out throughout the student's learning life and into future teaching activities. "The unity of knowledge and action" is the most common point in Chinese philosophical wisdom, and it is also the most difficult point to achieve in practical activities. As an excellent international Chinese teacher, we must achieve the "unity of knowledge and action", clarify the teaching mission in the teaching process, take positive and correct concepts as the guide, and truly achieve the responsibility and mission of "language teaching and cultural dissemination" that a Chinese language teacher should do, so as to promote the development of Chinese to the world and expand more possibilities for exchanges between China and the world.

International Student Mobility to Canada and New Zealand: “Edugration” or “Transience”?

Policymakers in some key Western international education hubs assume that international student mobility (ISM) is based on aspirations for permanent migration, particularly if those students come from the Global South. The concept of ‘edugration’ - an amalgam of education and immigration – has become influential in both policy and research. This paper examines student motivations for ISM in Canada and New Zealand using a mixed methods approach of online surveys and focus group interviews, collecting data from 396 international student participants (Canada: n=244; New Zealand: n=152). The results show a nuanced picture, highlighting that many students view international study as a transient experience rather than one that facilitates permanent migration. The paper also discusses the extent to which a desire to attract potential migrants is reflected in policies related to ISM in the two countries, and the potential implications of the findings for these policies.

东盟中文学习者画作中的中文教师角色：基于隐喻的分析

<p>With the implementation and promotion of the "Belt and Road" initiative, economic and trade cooperation and humanistic exchanges between China and ASEAN are going deeper, and Chinese language education in ASEAN has shown a booming development. As a core participant of international Chinese language education in the region, the role of Chinese language teachers is an important conceptual source of ASEAN youth's perception of China, which has a crucial impact on Chinese language learners. Based on the creation of visual metaphors, this study uses the teacher metaphor analysis framework to summarize the ASEAN Chinese teacher role metaphor categories and explore the ASEAN Chinese teacher traits from the learners' perspective. We selected 60 graphic works created by ASEAN Chinese learners as the research material, extracted 31 Chinese teacher role metaphors, and delineated six metaphorical conceptual categories. This study aims to arouse the attention of international Chinese teacher educators, social organizations, and Chinese teachers themselves to the developmental changes of Chinese teacher roles, and to provide a reference for the professional development of international Chinese teachers.</p>

Digital Environment and AI in International Education: The Gaps and Implications

Digital Environment and AI in International Education: The Gaps and Implications

International Education and the Dawn of New Technologies: How to Make It Work for Students?

International Education and the Dawn of New Technologies: How to Make It Work for Students?

Catalyzing Regional Influence: The United Arab Emirates’ and Qatar’s Bids for Educational Leadership in the MENA Region through International Education Hubs

Catalyzing Regional Influence: The United Arab Emirates’ and Qatar’s Bids for Educational Leadership in the MENA Region through International Education Hubs

A Qualitative Study on International Education Experiences of Foreign Teachers Working in International Schools in Istanbul

This study aims to try to understand the perceptions, opinions, thoughts and experiences of foreign teachers working in primary schools that provide international education in Türkiye. This research was conducted using qualitative method and in-depth interview technique. The study group comprised 10 foreign teachers working in an international school in Istanbul, none of whom were Turkish citizens. The interviews were conducted between April and June 2023 and lasted from 60 to 120 minutes. According to the findings; all the teachers had at least seven years of teaching experience in both national and international curriculums, were between the age of 34-44, mostly married with kids. Teachers defined international education as an educational philosophy that raised multicultural, multilingual, tolerant, openminded, respectful world citizens. Finally, these results were discussed in the context of different studies in the literature. Some suggestions were presented for both educational institutions and further researches about the field.

Reviewer Acknowledgements for International Education Studies, Vol. 17, No. 5

Reviewer Acknowledgements for International Education Studies, Vol. 17, No. 5

Student identity in transnational higher education: international branch campuses versus Sino-foreign institutes

ABSTRACT This study compares the impact of transnational higher education (TNHE) on student identity in two types of operating model, namely the international branch campus and Sino-foreign institute. The developmental characteristics of both types in China over the past two decades are reviewed, with a focus on students’ identity positioning in the contexts of institutional purposes. A qualitative approach is adopted to delve into participants’ narratives and reflections, followed by an analysis of their identity development through the lens of Bildung theory. Differences in the purposes and strategies of the two types of TNHE institution were found to have an impact on students’ experiences and perceptions of their ongoing self-identity formation. By comparing the two types of institution, the research provides new insights for the further development of higher education internationalisation in China and other countries that offer different models of transnational education.

On the Role of Group Competition Mechanism in International Chinese Classroom

International Chinese language education is a field that has attracted much attention in recent years. Under the background of China's increasing international influence, more and more people realize the importance of learning Chinese. However, with the development of international Chinese education, we should also pay attention to the research of international Chinese education classroom strategy. Based on the observation of online open courses, with group competition mechanism as the theoretical basis, take the class “Whose bag is this” in the first grade of a primary school in the Philippines as an example, observed the classroom group competition mechanism, this paper mainly introduces the competition mechanism into the Chinese language teaching classroom advantages and disadvantages, and further put forward the principles and methods of classroom competition mechanism. The aim is to provide new teaching ideas for Chinese teachers and facilitate and improve their teaching efficiency and quality.

Switzerland as a Site of Capital Accumulation: The Case of International Education

This special issue explores how and why foreign families and individuals, as well as local institutions, capitalize on the Swiss private schools’ market. Our introduction unpacks how the country and its educational landscape intersect with broader ties to global capitalism and asset movement. By further unravelling the interplay of social re/production, Bourdieusian capital accumulation, and transnational mobility for the globally elite, our introduction sets forth an important research agenda on Switzerland’s international education sector.

Transcending Shallow Internationalization: Best Practices for Attaining Excellence in International Higher Education

The context for this study is the volatile, turbulent, and disruptive environment that affects higher education everywhere. A plethora of key problems facing higher education are identified. Among these are escalating costs and declining public support for higher education. This means that international education must compete with other possible priorities, such as strengthening disciplines or making campuses more attractive to prospective students. The basic aim of this paper is to develop a set of best practices to promote excellence and rigor in international higher education. In that sense, this could be called action research. This could also be considered the story of how to develop excellence and rigor in international higher education. The major methodology for this study is multiple case studies research and mixed methods research. Another method is reflective participant experience based on the author’s seven decades of engagement with the internationalization of higher education. Both value premises and positionality, which might influence the research are openly shared. In terms of theoretical foundations, key genres of internationalization are identified and described, such as critical, comparative, and comprehensive internationalization. Then, in terms of results, in the next quantitative section of the paper, eight statistical tables are shared that show the current status of international higher education, primarily in the U.S., while also including a table showing the most international universities in the world. Then, in the next qualitative part of the study, 11 exemplary cases are presented, such as CAMPUS Asia, Volunteers in Asia (VIA), and the International Cooperative Learning Project. These projects involve a total of about 20 countries. The criteria for selection were factors such as depth, sustainability, and impactful, transformative learning. The paper concludes with an articulation of the best practices to achieve excellence in international education and the principle that true liberal education is inherently international and intercultural.

Exchanges and Mutual Learning among Civilization: the Fundamental Principle of Postgraduate Training of International Chinese Education

The important discussion of civilization exchange and mutual learning is not only an important way to build a community with a shared future for mankind, an important driving force to promote the common progress of human civilization and world peace and development, but also provides a theoretical basis for the construction of international Chinese education, and effectively solves the academic debate on the nature of international Chinese education. Build human destiny community, civilization exchange mutual learning and international Chinese education constitutes the complete system of the world, build human destiny community is civilization exchange mutual learning and the ultimate goal and fundamental task of international Chinese education, civilization exchange mutual learning and international Chinese education is the concept of building human destiny community guarantee and implementation path, civilization exchange mutual learning is the fundamental follow the international Chinese education, international Chinese education is an important support to promote communication between Chinese and foreign civilizations. Therefore, the international Chinese education should take the important discourse of civilization exchange and mutual learning as the fundamental adherence of the professional construction and the guiding ideology of the curriculum setting, and list it as an important professional course or an important content of the professional course

Exploring Vietnamese student experiences of transitioning from high school into a transnational university

ABSTRACT Transnational education (TNE) – a form of education where learners study in a different country to the awarding institution has been increasingly prevalent globally. Vietnam is not an exception. This article explores university transition experiences of TNE students in Vietnam. Thematic analysis of 20 in-depth interviews with TNE students identified eight inter-related transition challenges associated with new learning environments and academic requirements, including English oral communication, freedom, career uncertainty, peer relationships, technology, self-directed learning, time as well as study workload management, and writing skills. Findings also revealed that students used different strategies to cope with transition challenges. Specifically, they applied a self-directed approach to adapt to the new environment and sought support from peers, lecturers, advisors, and the library to overcome transition difficulties. Employing a TNE student transition theoretical framework, this article discusses the role of students’ relationship capital, resilience, and confidence in coping with the transition to university, and proposes transition support across three stages of the student journey: commencement, middle years, and senior years. The paper carries theoretical, policy, and practical implications for enhancing student transition experiences critical to TNE higher education.

ФОРМЫ ОРГАНИЗАЦИИ МЕЖДУНАРОДНОЙ АКАДЕМИЧЕСКОЙ МОБИЛЬНОСТИ В ВУЗЕ

The article raises issues of international education in the global educational space. The work is devoted to studying the organization of the main forms of international academic mobility in Russian universities. The experience of organizing large-scale and academic mobility, as well as its form, is described. An analysis and assessment of the degree of implementation of various forms of mobility at the Department of Training of Foreign Specialists of Volgograd State Technical University was carried out. The main prospects for the development of such international forms of academic mobility are highlighted.

The Trend of International Educational Applications and Research on Generative Artificial Intelligence

The Trend of International Educational Applications and Research on Generative Artificial Intelligence

A Study Based the Cite Space Visual Analysis - Topics Selection of ‘Anxiety’ for Master's Theses in Chinese International Education, 2011-2023

In this study, we employed the Cite Space software to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the selected topics of 'anxiety' in the master's theses on Chinese international education on China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) from 2011 to 2023. The study revealed that research in this field has demonstrated a fluctuating growth trend, with research hotspots focusing on the influence of affective factors on second language acquisition, international students' learning anxiety and teaching anxiety. Despite the wealth of research on the topic of 'anxiety' in Chinese master's degrees, the study identified several limitations, including the use of a single research method and an unclear understanding of research hotspots. To advance the field, future research should adopt a more diverse range of research methods and delve deeper into the exploration of research hotspots.

Enhancing EMI learning through L1 use and ESP: A mixed-methods study in a Chinese transnational education context

This paper employs a mixed-methods design to investigate the supportive roles of the translanguaging practice, specifically the use of students' First Language (L1), and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses within the context of English Medium Instruction (EMI) in a Transnational Education (TNE) program in China. It involved collecting questionnaire responses from 268 undergraduate Chemical Engineering students and conducting 17 follow-up semi-structured interviews. The hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed students' academic language-related challenges and ESP course performance were two statistically significant predictors of their EMI academic success; academic linguistic challenges and students' L1 use attitudes emerged as significant indicators of their EMI learning self-efficacy. Qualitative data analysis further uncovered students' positive beliefs regarding the bridging effects of L1 use on facilitating their EMI learning and the foundational role of ESP courses in linguistic preparation. These empirical findings lead to significant pedagogical implications, aiming to scaffold effective EMI learning in the investigated context.